How to Audit Integration of Google Analytics, Ads

Google Ads is an important platform for online merchants. Google Analytics is another. Combining the two provides rich, actionable data to grow traffic and sales — assuming that tracking is set up correctly.

In this post, I’ll provide an audit process to confirm proper integration.

Include just one conversion that should be comparable to the Google Ads conversion.

In the below example, I could select “Transaction” or “Goal 1: Placed Order” because both show nearly identical numbers for total conversions.

In Google Analytics, “Transaction” and “Goal 1: Placed Order” show nearly identical numbers for total conversions.

Next:

Update the path length to “All” to report all conversions.

Select “Google Ads” as the conversion type.

Set the Lookback Window to match the Google Ads setting. In my example, both were set to “30 days.”

Filter by conversion action in Google Ads if you have multiple actions.

Filter by conversion action in Google Ads if you have multiple actions.

And then look at that number. I get 189.9 transactions for the timeframe I’m comparing for Google Ads.

Google Ads integration 11

And in Google Analytics, when applying the same attribution model, I get the numbers I need to sum up the value. (Google Analytics doesn’t provide a total value. You have to export a .csv to sum up — or do the math yourself). I calculated 177.95 total conversions from Google Analytics, which is close to the 189.9 from Google Ads.

Use the same attribution model In Google Analytics as Google Ads, then sum up all conversions to compare.

If the two numbers do not materially align:

Check that the Google Analytics conversion tracking tag is firing on the same page using the same Google Tag Manager trigger as Google Ads.

Other Advertising Platforms

Google offers a comprehensive integration between Ads and Analytics. Other platforms, such as Microsoft ads, cannot be integrated nearly as well. But you can ensure tracking is accurate by using the same process outlined for comparing Google Analytics with Google Ads.